Mt. Vernon High School holds Veterans Assembly

JAG students place 1,000 flags in front of school to honor local veterans
Mt. Vernon High School held a Veterans Day assembly on Friday, Nov. 10. Over 1,200 students, local families and residents came out to honor local veterans during the gathering.
Retired Marine Sergeant Wally Long was the guest speaker. Long served in the United States Marine Corps for 10 years, and was stationed mostly at Camp Lejeune, N.C., with the 10th Marine Artillary Regiment as an Artillary/Naval Gunfire forward observer. He was on two separate six-month deployments to the Mediterranean to participate in operations with NATO countries, such as Italy, Turkey and Isreal. His deployments took him through Suez Canal, to the Indian Ocean and eventually crossing the equator, so he is a fully initiated Shellback.
His last year on active duty was as a recruiter. Sergeant Long was discharged in 1990 as an E-5.
The Mt. Vernon Intermediate School SWAG team also led the assembly’s Pledge of Allegiance followed by the high school choir singing the Star-Spangled Banner and the middle and high school choirs combining to sing America.
Senior Emma Tobey and junior Kaylee Scrivner led the veterans recognition and the high school band played Armed Forces-Pride of America.
After a moment of silence, Madalynn Copley played Taps before everyone was dismissed.

JAG students honor veterans with 1,000 flags in front of school
In addition, the Mt. Vernon JAG (Job’s for America’s Graduates) students, led by, JAG instructor, Chance Cornell, held a Field of Flags fundraiser, in collaboration with the  Mt. Vernon Student Council, to purchase 1,000 flags which were placed along the road leading to the school parking lot and in front of the school to honor local veterans.
JAG is a national organization that has been in existence since 1980. It is a program that helps young people overcome personal and academic challenges to reach their full potential, graduate from high school, and transition successfully into life after high school. For each of its 40 years, JAG students nationally have achieved a 95 percent graduation rate, a 90 percent full time job placement rate, and a 43 percent post secondary education rate.
In the state of Missouri approximately 80 school districts have JAG programs. Those programs serve approximately 4,000 students. And those students have, historically, had a graduation rate of 98 percent. Mt. Vernon is not the only JAG program in our area said Cornell, “Aurora and Monett have phenomenal and established programs that we are learning from.”
The JAG program equips students with the skills and support needed to be successful in their studies, the workforce, and in life. Things that most people struggled with when they got out of school, JAG aims to teach these students those important life skills early on so they have one less thing to worry about after graduation. Cornell said, “In our classrooms we like to call this class ‘Adulting 101’.”
The Mt. Vernon JAG Program is working on several ‘give back’ initiatives so these students can give back to the communities that have given them so much, such as the Field of Flags fundraiser. After a short fundraiser a total of 1,000 flags were purchased for this event, 300 lined the driveway and an additional 700 on the hill in front of the school. Cornell explained, “we wanted to honor all our veterans and create an amazing display for them to witness as they entered our campus for our veterans event.”